{"id":2813,"date":"2014-03-29T10:56:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T10:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=2813"},"modified":"2014-03-29T10:56:47","modified_gmt":"2014-03-29T10:56:47","slug":"my-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=2813","title":{"rendered":"My Friend!"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Friend!<\/strong>
\n(James Smith, “The Love of Christ! The Fullness, Freeness, and Immutability of the Savior’s Grace Displayed!”)<\/p>\n

“Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved<\/em>, and this is my Friend!<\/strong>” Song of Songs 5:16<\/p>\n

Jesus manifests His love \u2014 as the Friend <\/em>of His people. He . . .
\nfills every relation to them,
\nperforms every kind office for them, and
\ncomforts them with divine consolations.<\/p>\n

He invites them to pour their griefs into His bosom \u2014 and tell out all their troubles before Him. He holds communion <\/em>with them \u2014 and indulges them to converse with Him as a man with his friend. He encourages <\/em>them by assurances of His love \u2014 and fortifies <\/em>them by promises of His presence. “Fear not,” He says, “for I am with you! Be not dismayed, I am your God! I will strengthen you, surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand!”<\/p>\n

His power, His riches, His wisdom, and His Spirit \u2014 are devoted to their best interests, and employed for their present and everlasting welfare. He watches <\/em>over them in tender love \u2014 and listens <\/em>to them with compassionate concern.<\/p>\n

He is a friend <\/em>who loves at all times \u2014 a brother <\/em>born for adversity. His love<\/em>, in its immutability, fullness, and perfection \u2014 is the great bulwark of their safety; and His friendship \u2014 <\/em>is the joy of their hearts. He sticks closer than a brother, and never will fail or forsake the soul that trusts in Him.<\/p>\n

He performs all the kind offices of friendship . . .
\nin sickness and health;
\nin plenty and poverty;
\nin life and death.
\nHe has Heaven and earth at His command \u2014 as the friend of the defenseless <\/em>soul.
\nHe has all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge \u2014 as the companion of the ignorant <\/em>and fearful<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He calls His people, friends<\/em> \u2014 and presents Himself to them as their friend for their comfort, confidence, and joy.<\/p>\n

O how the love of Jesus shines in His friendship! As our friend, He . . .
\nlived <\/em>in our world,
\nsuffered <\/em>in our place,
\ndied <\/em>in our stead,
\nrose <\/em>as our representative, and
\nascended to Heaven, where He continually makes intercession <\/em>for us!<\/p>\n

He acknowledges that I am an undeserving vile worm<\/em> \u2014 yet calls me His friend!<\/em> He knows the worst parts of my character \u2014 and yet He says, “You are mine! I have chosen you \u2014 and will not cast you away!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Friend! (James Smith, “The Love of Christ! The Fullness, Freeness, and Immutability of the Savior’s Grace Displayed!”) “Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!” Song of Songs 5:16 Jesus manifests His love \u2014 as the Friend of His people. He . . . fills every relation to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,61,72,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-james-smith","category-believers-assurance","category-christ-and-his-church","category-gods-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2814,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions\/2814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}